Jen Lewin

USA

The Pool

Please touch the ArtThe Pool by Jen Lewin only works if you interact with it, stand, dance and jump on it. Lewin fabricates large-scale interactive, public sculptures that encourage community interaction and play. Through form, light, sound and motion she creates a world of connection and magic. The Pool is an environment of 106 concentric circles created from interactive circular pads. By entering The Pool, you enter a world where play and collaborative movement create swirling effects of light and color. Imagine a giant canvas where you paint and splash light collaboratively. As multiple users play in The Pool, their interactions become mesmerizing patterns of shifting and fading colors.

BioJen Lewin is an internationally renowned light and interactive sculptor whose studio is located in Boulder, Colorado. Over the last 15 years, Lewin has honed her highly technical medium to fabricate large-scale interactive sculptures that combine light, sound and motion to encourage community interaction. From responsive sound and light forms that incorporate dance, to woven video curtains that reflect movement, to giant robotic moths that flutter in response to human touch, Lewin’s use of technology as a medium challenges popular conceptions of new media works and their limitations. Focusing on pieces made for public use, she thinks beyond a traditional art exhibition to create an experience that brings vibrancy to neighborhoods, parks and public spaces. At once organic and electronic, Jen Lewin’s playful sculptures leave viewers enchanted and surprised while encouraging delight through their engagement with the work. In this sense, visitors to Jen Lewin’s works become artists themselves.
Her technically complex works have been featured at events including Vivid Sydney, iLight Marina Bay, Signal Fest and Burning Man, art Biennales in Denver, Colorado and Gwangju, South Korea and solo exhibitions in the United States, Portugal and England. Her design and multimedia work has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, The Smithsonian, Wired, The New York Times, BBC News and The Straits Times. Lewin served as Creative Director for the Ceren Project and Ivee Project at The Sundance Laboratory for Advanced Computing in Design, as well as a lead designer for ITN (Saber) in Palo Alto. Lewin attended the University of Colorado where she earned her BA in Computer-Aided Architectural Design and her MPS from New York University in the Graduate Program in Interactive.